Projects, part one

I have several projects that I need to complete before birthdays and Christmas arrive(Abby and Scott have birthdays in December). Most of these need to be done on the sewing machine and I've been putting them off because I dread cutting fabric! The pinning and sewing part, no problem. The cutting of the fabric before the pinning and sewing gives me the shivers. But, last night and this morning I managed to whip together one of the projects and it was much easier than I had thought it would be!! For Abby's birthday she is getting some things to help keep her entertained at church and I wanted to make a little cloth bag to keep them in. So, I decided to make a pillowcase into a drawstring bag. I happened to have bought a couple of pillowcases at DI last year that I was planning to make into summer dresses for Abby so I dug those out of the fabric boxes.

I didn't take a picture before I cut it but this way you can sort of see how I cut it.

I sewed up the bottom and one side.

I added a buttonhole on the top of the bag (what used to be the cuff of the pillowcase).

Folded the cuff towards the inside and sewed around the bottom of it.

Threaded the ribbon through the buttonhole and worked it through the inside edge with a safety pin. (It's folded over in this pic)

After finishing the edges of the ribbons, here is the finished product!!

                                                    (It's a little twisted in the picture)

I can hardly wait for Abby's birthday so we can fill this cute little bag with her church busy toys!! I am super excited to make similar bags for other purposes now that I know how easy it is!!

I found the tutorial for the bag here, http://makezine.com/craft/how-to_tuesdays_pillowcase_lau/

I didn't do a hanging strap, used ribbon instead of twill tape and cut mine to shorten it and make it narrower.